Transparent electrically conductive substrates are used in flat displays and touch panels, and electroluminescent devices and the like. Typical transparent electrically conductive materials are configured from a substrate film and a metal oxide such as tin-doped indium oxide (ITO), and typical manufacturing methods are vapour-phase film forming methods such as vacuum deposition methods, sputtering methods and ion plating methods. However, alternatives are actively being developed in consideration of the difficulty in maintaining a stable supply of ITO due to its containing a rare metal, and the slow production speeds of vapour-phase film forming methods, for example.
One alternative comprises metallic nanowires (wire-shaped metallic objects having a diameter of between several tens and several hundreds of nm, and a length of between one and one hundred and several tens of μm) (patent literature 1, 2). Metallic nanowires have a fibre diameter that is sufficiently small that transparency is not adversely affected, and a fibre length that is sufficiently long to build a conductive network on the substrate even if added in small amounts. A transparent electrically conductive substrate is manufactured by applying onto a substrate a coating liquid comprising metallic nanowires dispersed in an aqueous solvent, and drying it.